On Monday, 28th June pupils from year 3 at St. Mary’s primary went on a school trip to X-Platoon. X-Platoon is located near Wheatley Hill. It is an outdoor adventure place, which also teaches you to survival skills. Our instructors were called Steve and Joe.

Our first activity was to sharpen some wood with a sharp knife. First Steve explained to us how to use a knife safely. Then we all went to get our own knife and piece of wood. We found it quite difficult to get the right angles, to carve the wood. You had to do a quick movement to sharpen the wood, but eventually we all got the hang of it. We were allowed to take the stick home at the end of the day.

We had lots of fun at lunch time as we got to sit around a fire, and some of us were allowed to sit around the round table.

The second activity was where we got the opportunity to explore some shelters that had already been made. Shelter number 1 was the most luxurious one, as it had a raised bed and room for a big fire. Shelter 2 was our favourite, as it had a small fire in the middle. It was tepee shape and had a little chimney at the top. Shelter 3 was only a 1 star one, as it did not have as many features.

Then we went into groups and designed and made our own dens using material that was in the forest. Each group had a team leader and were given some string and a knife to use if they needed them. When we had made them, each group had to explain to the others what they did, which was really fun!

Next we used a fire steel to light a cotton wool ball on fire. Most people found these very tricky, but lots of us were determined to do it on our own. Our final part of the day involved toasting marshmallows over a fire using some long sticks. The marshmallows went golden brown and were sticky, but were absolutely delicious to eat.

We all felt that X-Platoon was our favourite school trip and would give it a 5 star rating! We would recommend this place as a very exciting day out!

Here are a few quotes…

“My favourite part was making a shelter.”

“My favourite part was making fire; although it was very tricky.”

“I loved eating hot, sticky marshmallows!”

Written by YEAR 3 pupils from St. Mary’s